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Saturday, February 19, 2011

M: A Couple Days of Dinners and a Yoga Sidenote!

Happy Saturday! And what a beautiful few days it has been here in Charleston! Yesterday was sunny and in the 70’s! I am so counting down the days until the pool is open again!

So, I wanted to share a couple of my other dinners this week. They aren’t quite as noteworthy as my recent Rachael Ray dinners, but they are just as good =) And they are always on my regular dinner rotations.

And last night I cooked up some homemade chicken fajitas. This was actually the first time I marinated my veggies and chicken all day for a fajita recipe and I used this five spice marinade I found at Whole Foods (this is made exclusively for WF so I don’t think you can get it anywhere else):

It is slightly citrusy and full of flavor and spice and even just a little sweet! My favorite part? I recognize every ingredient on the ingredient list, which is always a plus =) This marinade really made our fajitas over the top good!

My marinated chicken, pepper, and onion mixture was spooned into our tortillas and topped with black beans, salsa and cheese:

Yum!

Lastly, I really wanted to share a little from an article I read in this season’s Yoga International Magazine. If you practice meditation and/or yoga or are thinking about trying it, I believe this will catch your interest and you can really see the benefits that come from it.

I don’t think it’s any secret that a lot of our men and women serving overseas suffer from some amount of mental distress during and/or after deployment. To that resolution, the Dept. of Defense has initiated iRest (Integrative Restoration Institute), a holistic health program for soldiers using methods such as meditation, Yoga Nidra, and acupuncture. (visit iRest’s Military article here for more detail, this is really a great read).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDBnUsGglcs

The idea is that our soldiers can’t just be physically ready for anything, but they also need to be able to mentally survive and be able to thrive in their lives during and after deployment.

From the iRest article, “iRest offers the men and women serving in the Armed Forces and veterans in all walks of civilian life, a simple tool for healing through the variety of symptoms and issues that they are facing while actively serving or after being discharged from the service of our country”. Said one Iraq War Vet, “Instead of feeling like there is something wrong with us, iRest makes us feel there is something right with us”.

I truly think it is so fantastic that the influences of yoga and meditation have found their way to the men and women in our military!

Ok, that’s my yoga/meditation note for the day =)

Don’t forget to enter into our Stonyfield giveaway by noon tomorrow! Just visit Erica’s previous post for details! Have a great rest of the weekend!

I've never made my own fajitas! I always love them when I order them in restaurants though, and I think my boyfriend would love it if I made them, too!

Thanks for the post about iRest. For some reason I think we have a hard time even thinking too much about the soldiers overseas (guilt? ambivalence about the war?), much less their mental health. I'm glad something like this exists. Personally, I've found even one yoga class a week is so restorative and really helps me calm down, relax, and recharge.